Split from Coral Bleaching - What are Sea Walkers?

[Bowmouth]

Man-handling live coral and other marine life is not just a problem that is evident with Sea-Walkers.
Scuba divers and snorkelers are guilty as well.

Many so-called "environmental friendly" or "eco" resorts, tour and dive operators do not truly enforce their advertised environmental friendly rules and guidelines and let their guests get away with harassing marine life, touching / holding on to live coral and stirring up the bottom and displacing sediment.
It's often hilarious (and sad) to see that the guides are actually the main culprits and will do anything to show their guests creatures that are living in corals or hiding under rocks and ledges.

I understand it's a tough choice sometimes (been there / done that) but most of us are really just all "mouth" when it comes to true conservation and very-very little true "action".

 

[lord khram]

Or grab it and hold it like a bouquet of flowers while posing for a photo.
The blog the photo illustrates was published in 2008 and describes the author's experience in Pattaya, yet this Pattaya Mail article from 2006 reports an agreement by sea walker operators to safeguard the environment. Sadly, the blog evidence doesn't appear to support the notion that conservation efforts are taken seriously.

I can assure you having seen their antics on countless occasions, the only thing they are interested in protecting is their finances, they certainly do nothing to protect marine life.

 

[h90]

It's what the sea-gypsies do.
They would make great sea-walker instructors...

An old old compressor on the longtail boat. a hose down, just clamping the hose between the teeths and a mask.

 

[Bowmouth]

An old old compressor on the longtail boat. a hose down, just clamping the hose between the teeths and a mask.

I've seen them diving for sea cucumbers on the "Burma Banks". It was quite amazing.

We were at about 27 meters when we came across a couple of hoses going down way-way deep. Visibility was great (40+ meters) but at first I could not see the hose-divers at all; just a steady stream of bubbly bubbles.
Then towards the end of our dive we saw the hose-divers coming up in the "shallows". There were 2 guys and they maybe had 8 sea cucumbers in a small net. That's a helluva lot of dangerous deep diving for just a few cucumbers.

Nowadays not only most of the sharks have disappeared from the "Burma Banks" but it's hard to find sea-cucumbers too. Unless you dive to 60+ meter you may be lucky enough to find one.

 

[Bowmouth]

....the only thing they are interested in protecting is their finances, they certainly do nothing to protect marine life.

Most scuba operators do not either. Or very-very little.

 

[lord khram]

Most scuba operators do not either. Or very-very little.

Agreed, as I have posted on these forums numerous times. no need for me to repeat myself I think.

 

[red_barbarian]

On the subject of scuba operators not doing enough, if we could at least get them to be role models under water and not handle or even touch marine life that would help a great deal. I think a lot of customers do as they see their instructors/DM's do. it's really hard when your on a boat with several dive operators, most of whom act responsably, to watch when you get a few wanna be sea-walkers working as instructors/DM's.

 

[h90]

I've seen them diving for sea cucumbers on the "Burma Banks". It was quite amazing.

We were at about 27 meters when we came across a couple of hoses going down way-way deep. Visibility was great (40+ meters) but at first I could not see the hose-divers at all; just a steady stream of bubbly bubbles.
Then towards the end of our dive we saw the hose-divers coming up in the "shallows". There were 2 guys and they maybe had 8 sea cucumbers in a small net. That's a helluva lot of dangerous deep diving for just a few cucumbers.

Nowadays not only most of the sharks have disappeared from the "Burma Banks" but it's hard to find sea-cucumbers too. Unless you dive to 60+ meter you may be lucky enough to find one.

the sea cucumbers get "dried" (it looks like the barbecue them) than there is not much left from them. That is sold for Chinese medicine. Yes whatever can be sold disappears...."Burma Banks" is that in Thailand or in Myanmar?
In Thailand as it seems there is not much of a protection of anything.

 

[Bowmouth]

the sea cucumbers get "dried" (it looks like the barbecue them) than there is not much left from them. That is sold for Chinese medicine. Yes whatever can be sold disappears...."Burma Banks" is that in Thailand or in Myanmar?
In Thailand as it seems there is not much of a protection of anything.

The "Burma Banks" is a series of 5 completely submerged sea mounts located approximately 100 NM offshore off the coast of Myanmar (Burma). The shallowest of the banks comes up to about 15 meters (50 feet) of the surface and the deepest has a starting depth of about 24 meters.
These banks are huge and surrounded by deep ocean water and used to be a great place to see pelagics and sharks. Silvertip, tawny nurse, leopard (zebra), white tip and even the odd hammerhead and tiger shark have been seen there. After the year 2000 sharks disappeared rapidly though and nowadays its unlikely you will see sharks at all at the banks. Most sharks were fished out by Indonesian longline fishermen who would come to the banks in small open boats all the way from Sumatra and decimated the big fish population in just a few years time.

 

[Bowmouth]

On the subject of scuba operators not doing enough, if we could at least get them to be role models under water and not handle or even touch marine life that would help a great deal. I think a lot of customers do as they see their instructors/DM's do. it's really hard when your on a boat with several dive operators, most of whom act responsably, to watch when you get a few wanna be sea-walkers working as instructors/DM's.

It's not easy to be "hard-core" eco friendly when it comes to scuba diving. Customers want to see creatures and part of the guide's / DM / Instructor job is to look for those creatures and point them out to those divers. Some animals are hiding under ledges, rocks and coral heads, others are living in / on live corals making it difficult or nearly impossible to point those out and yet still other animals live in burrows in the bottom and tend to disappear quickly when you come close.
Guides, DM's and Instructors use different "techniques" to show different kinds of creatures to their divers and many of those techniques are not very environmentally friendly towards the reef and the creatures on it. Unfortunately without using those techniques there often will be very little chance for a group of divers to see such creatures. Many divers want to see as many creatures as possible during a single dive and are unwilling to spend more than a minute or two with a creature at a time. Many divers also do not seem to know where to look or how to look for creatures themselves putting even more pressure on the guide / DM / Instructor to find and show the animals to them.